A 24-hour mental health support line based in York is to have its hours cut by two-thirds.

22 The Avenue, a service run by City of York Council, provides support for adults with mental health needs.

The council has said it is no longer needed as a 24 hour service as the NHS runs a crisis line.

Michael Melvin, assistant director Adult Social Care, City of York Council, said: “Since York’s mental health support line was set up, many other support options for people with mental health issues have been created, including TEWV’s 24hr mental health crisis service. As a result, the vast majority of calls to our service now occur in the afternoon and early evening. To ensure we can focus our resources to when they are most needed, we are proposing to change the opening time of our mental health support line to 2pm until 10pm, inline with customer need.

“We recognise that any change can be unsettling and have written to all our existing customers explaining the proposals and have discussed any concerns with the handful of customers who have come back to us.”